By Dorie Greenspan
- Total Time
- About 2½ hours, plus cooling
- Rating
- 4(510)
- Notes
- Read community notes
Inspired by a meal at Le Jardin des Plumes in the French town of Giverny, where the artist Monet lived and worked, this dish is as beautiful as it is unusual: It’s simply a tomato gently roasted and basted with olive oil. It tastes vegetal and rich, as you’d expect, but it’s also sweet and citrusy. The surprise is at the core, which gets filled with sugar and lime zest. During the hours in the oven, the oil, sugar and zest find their way into every fiber of the tomato, technically making it a kind of confit, a dish usually cooked in fat or sugar — or, in this case, both. Serve the tomato warm or at room temperature as a starter, perhaps with a tiny salad, or, for your most adventurous friends, serve it chilled for dessert, topped with vanilla ice cream, a drizzle of oil and some flaky salt.
Featured in: Everything You Love About Tomatoes, Amplified
or to save this recipe.
Print Options
Include recipe photo
Advertisem*nt
Ingredients
Yield:4 servings
- Ice cubes, as needed
- 4medium, ripe but firm round tomatoes
- 2tablespoons granulated sugar
- 2limes
- ¼teaspoon pure lemon or lime oil or extract (see Tip), optional
- ½cup extra-virgin olive oil, preferably mild and fruity
- Maldon or other flaky sea salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Preparation
Step
1
Center a rack in the oven and heat to 200 degrees. Have a nonreactive baking pan at hand that can hold the tomatoes comfortably, such as a 9-inch, deep-dish pie plate.
Step
2
Put a large saucepan of water to boil and fill a large bowl with cold water and ice cubes. Cut a shallow X in the bottom of each tomato, and one by one, drop them into the boiling water. Count 15 to 20 seconds, then transfer the tomatoes to the bowl of ice water. Peel each tomato. Using a small knife, remove each tomato’s core, creating a V-shaped hollow an inch or so deep. Arrange the tomatoes in the pan.
Step
3
Put the sugar in a small bowl, then finely grate the zest from both limes over it. Rub the ingredients together between your fingertips until the sugar is moist and aromatic and maybe colored. Spoon an equal amount of sugar into each tomato.
Step
4
If you’re using lemon or lime oil or extract, stir it into the olive oil. Spoon the olive oil over the tomatoes, allowing just a few drops to fall into the tomatoes’ hollows.
Step
5
Bake for 2 to 3 hours, basting a couple of times each hour, until the tomatoes are soft all the way through but still hold their shape. (You can poke them with a bamboo skewer or the tip of a thin knife to test.) Remove the dish from the oven, and season the tomatoes with salt and pepper.
Step
6
These are best served at room temperature, but can also be enjoyed warm or even chilled. Spoon a little oil from the baking dish over each tomato just before serving. These are at their peak the day they are made, but they’ll hold for a day in the refrigerator. If you’ve refrigerated the tomatoes, it’s best to serve them either chilled or at room temperature.
Tip
- Not to be confused with inedible essential oils used for aromatherapy purposes, pure lemon or lime oils or extracts used for culinary purposes are typically available in most supermarkets near other baking ingredients.
Ratings
4
out of 5
510
user ratings
Your rating
or to rate this recipe.
Have you cooked this?
or to mark this recipe as cooked.
Private Notes
Leave a Private Note on this recipe and see it here.
Cooking Notes
Mike in NC
I made this recipe this afternoon, following it to the letter, using baseball size Sungold and heirloom German red tomatoes. It is time consuming but they come out of the oven looking like jewels and tasting of savory summer tomato bliss! A little dollop of sour cream added to the lushness. A great teleworking from the kitchen adventure and a definite keeper of a recipe.
Lindsey
When it says to remove the core, does that mean all the juice and seeds as well or just the little top part where it was connected to the vine?
VSB
Good Morning: Please clarify "medium" tomatoes. How many inches wide? Thank you.
MaryDee
When basting, should I avoid the olive oil being poured into the v-shaped notch- as in step 4?
Madrid
Wow, this is a dish with a very high wow factor. I served it next to scallops on a bed of pea and mint puree, and the colors were stunning, plus the contrast of the sweetness of the tomato with the minty sweet pea mixture was a treat for the taste buds. My guests were transported. I roasted for 4 hours because I was away for part of the afternoon, and even then my small-ish tomatoes survived intact. I don't think the time has to be too precise at that temperature.
Mercutio
What variety of tomato do you recommend? Roma are meaty but not round. Heirlooms and beefsteak tend to be watery. Other? Thanks.
Jim
Don't know about everywhere but native tomatoes, grown outside during the growing season of CT are to die for. That old concept of last meal before being executed, would be native tomatoes and native corn.
Sandy
Wow, this is good! Made it with Moonglow tomatoes. We had it as an after-dinner-before-dessert course. Served in small bowls, and that was good, since the juice was delicious too.
Ken Morrison
Not an expert, but I grabbed three tomatoes form my stash: Large one was 4 3/4”, Medium was 3” and small is 2”. I think you will be fine around 3 inches. Can’t wait to try this tomorrow.
Farm Fresh Fabre
I am making these currently, and wondering if the basting should go into the tomato core to mix the hot oil with sugar? Earlier the recipe said only a few drops in the core, so not sure if core is to be avoided again?
Bicka
I love tomatoes and was so looking forward to making this. I used some large heirloom tomatoes from the farmers market. Sadly, as they baked, the tomatoes released so much liquid that by the end of the bake, they were simply steamed/stewed tomatoes. Nothing special as far as taste or texture. A sad waste of some wonderful tomatoes.
Lisa
Alas, tastes like stewed tomatoes.
Trainerbill
Made this last night as a first course and it was delicious! But after just under 2 hours the tomatoes were cooked and had slumped a little; not as perky as in the illustration. Maybe my oven runs a little hot. Still tasted amazing. Very sophisticated flavors. Halved the recipe since it was just me and my partner. Served in small glass bowls on a tangle of baby arugula dressed with the juice of the zested lime and the basting liquid.
Joseph S Eggly
Delicious! I made this with Compari tomatoes, about 1 1/4 dia. I roasted them in rectangle ceramic tart pan. Because they are smaller, I reduced time to 90 minutes. Turned out perfect, and in a ready to serve vessel. Note: For lemon oil, I sliced up a lemon into a pyrex bowl, added oil to cover, saran over top, and into the microwave for two minutes. Then let that sit for 30 minutes, and you can use this for the olive oil in recipe. Lemongrass will work too.
Mmkperez
Out in rural Michigan and I’ve eaten homegrown tomatoes every day while visiting here. I haven’t had lemon or lime oil in years though. What would be an appropriate alternative?
Joan
I made these to compliment a salmon dish. I had lovely tomatoes and did not peel them. With the slow roast, they came out perfectly and the peel was not at all tough - plus it kept the perfect shape of the tomatoes. It was easy to fill in a small core at top with the lime/sugar mix. I imagine that this would work well with a whiff of balsamic vinegar for a different flavouring too - I'm going to try that next time for variety. But this makes a beautiful and easy vegetable for dinner.
VMay
Made the recipe as written using ordinary grocery store tomatoes and it was spectacular. I preceded it with sautéed scallops and puréed peas with as another person recommended. This was an elegant meal. Thank you, Dorie!
Satu Wyvern
Used cherry and grape tomatoes. Skipped Step 2. Cooked for 2 hours. Just a little less work for an excellent reward. Thank you
nancy
Beginner's luck - the first time I made these, I thought they were as transporting as the author suggests. But in the three times since then, they've been nice but hardly exciting. Do not know what I did differently, unfortunately.
Seth
The recipes should always specify whether the temperature given is Centigrade or Fahrenheit. I’m assuming the 200 in this recipe is Fahrenheit.
Richard
American newspaper: of course the temperature is Fahrenheit.
Paula
This is a treat, inventive use of lime and sugar.I found it's not necessary to remove skin from large tomatoes.I tried this with vine tomatoes (about 2.5 inches in diameter).Simsply sliced through the center, & removed some of the dense white core. Blended the lime zest with sugar and placed in centers and spread over the top. Put a little olive oil over all, added a shake of salt andcooked in oven at 225-250 for 2 hours.These came out amazing. All the joy of the original.
Ann
Very very delicious. The lime was an incredible pairing!
Kathied46
This is easy and delicious. I used the leftover oil ina salad dressing the next day!
E. Gelb
These are fantastic; a beautiful first course with plenty of french bread to soak up the tomato lime infused olive oil!
Frank in Charlotte
I have made these several times. I add lime juice to the sugar and zest and pour it in the hollow. Today I mixed the lime juice mixture with anchovies and pine nuts. I serve this as a single side with a steak or pork chop. It really pops on the plate, great presentation, tastes clean and fresh. Easy if you have the time, which so many of us do these days.
CliffS
Deelish. The combination of lime zest, a bit of sugar, and fresh, seasonal tomatoes was wonderful. Didn't have lemon oil or lime oil or extract. Next time I'll be more aware of cutting away the core not the way I would normally but really down 1 inch into the tomato.
Patrick Chadd
In the words of Dorie Greenspan this dish is as beautiful as it is unusual: I cooked it the full 3 hours and it’s very good with lots of great crusty bread to sop up all the juices. Delicious!
Merrell Wiseman
I used heirloom tomatoes, and baked for 2 hours. The result were collapsed and mushy, looking sort of like red flying saucers. I might try again with a different variety of tomato, but was overall not very impressed with this dish.
John K
Made this today and loved it. I was in the middle of prep and discovered I was out of white sugar so I subbed coconut sugar and the were terrific. I don’t know what variety of tomato I used. They were from a farm stand, about 3 1/2” across. Cooked 2 hours and 45 minutes and they held up perfectly. Clearly you don’t want a tomato with too much water in it. Amazing how the flavor of the lime moves through the tomato.
genevieve smith
I made this today with beautiful tomatoes from the farmers market. I was disappointed in the outcome and would t make it again and the people I served it to all but one didn’t eat theirs as they didn’t care for it. I let them off the hook of polite eating as I hadn’t made this before. I love the idea of it - I guess I didn’t like the sweetness and the texture and taste of the cooked tomatoes. It’s a beautiful presentation however and very easy recipe for those whose tastes are so inclined.
Private notes are only visible to you.
